The Real Full Monty star James Argent says girlfriend Gemma Collins helped him to overcome body confidence issues to strip on TV
JAMES ‘Arg’ Argent overcame huge body confidence issues to strip naked on ITV show The Real Full Monty – and puts it all down to a pep talk from Gemma Collins.
The Towie favourite revealed his girlfriend and co-star got him through a last minute meltdown to ensure he took his place alongside his troupe of celebrity strippers including Diversity star Ashley Banjo, The Wanted singer Tom Parker and TV host Jeff Brazier.
In an exclusive interview, he said: “I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for Gemma.
“She was fully behind me from the beginning. She seems to like me just the way I am.
“She doesn’t want me to change and that makes me feel good – I appreciate her a lot.
“Gem definitely motivated me. She told me to be confident, to enjoy it and to own it. She told me that I had to do it and that it wasn’t about me but the bigger picture. She helped to put it into perspective.”
Arg, who took in took part in the show in honour of his granddad who passed away of prostate cancer 15 years ago, believes Wednesday night’s show came at the wrong time for him as he was in much better shape six months ago following a huge lifestyle revamp.
His body confidence was so low; he couldn’t even bear to take off his clothes to shower in front of his new celeb pals and says he would still struggle now – even after conquering his fears on stage.
Arg said: “I wasn’t scared of showing my penis – that didn’t bother me. I was scared of my general appearance and my weight gain and my body.
“I am gutted because I was in great shape over the summer and then I started putting on weight at Christmas.
“It was such an amazing experience and I knew I had to do it but the timing was all wrong for me. I wasn’t in the right shape at all.
“I was worrying about what I would look like, what everyone would think of me, would I look unattractive? Would I get bullied on social media? That was all going through my head.”
He went through hours’ worth of rehearsals, learned the moves from Ashley and got his confidence from The GC – but he owes having an extra glow on stage to his extensive beauty regime.
James said: “Before the show I got a manicure and pedicure, my eyebrows waxed, my nostrils waxed, my eyelashes tinted, a back sack and crack, my chest waxed, a haircut and a spray tan.
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“You either go hard or you go home. The spray tan done me wonders, I would have looked a lot worse if it wasn’t for my spray tan.”
Arg should be really proud of himself — he has a lovely girlfriend, totally owned it, made his grandad proud and did his bit for raising awareness for male cancers.
Plus, he looked absolutely great.